Sexual Harassment?! But, We Have Policies And Training…

Addressing sexual harassment does not rest with the women alone

I can’t count the number of employers that have expressed shock to me that anyone could allege that sexual harassment goes on in their workplace. Most employers have written policies prohibiting sexual harassment. They state in no uncertain terms that they do not tolerate sexual harassment. Often they find out that in fact it’s not only going on in their workplace, but that it has been pervasive and ongoing. Can that be? Yes. If you are or have been in this situation, I can offer you one small consolation, for what it’s worth: you have company. As of last week, Microsoft found itself in exactly that type of situation, after a 90–plus page e-mail thread from women alleging blatant sexual harassment surfaced.

Obviously, I can’t begin to catalog all the stories, but here’s just one example, reported by Quartz: a female employee reported to her manager that during a business trip the employee of a partner company threatened to kill her unless she performed certain sexual acts. The manager’s response, allegedly, was that it ‘sounded like he was just flirting’ and that she ‘should get over it’. HR’s response: there was ‘no evidence’ and the alleged harasser didn’t work for Microsoft and so there was nothing Microsoft can do.

Are you cringing yet? You should be. There are so many things wrong with that response. First: in what universe are demands for sexual acts under threat of being killed ‘flirting‘? Second: how does an HR professional not know that an employer’s responsibility to protect its employees from harassment extends to the behavior of third parties (including contractors, clients, affiliates, etc.)? For that matter, since there doesn’t appear to have been an investigation, how would the H.R. rep really have known that there was ‘no evidence’? Did s/he ask whether anyone else saw or heard the threat? Clearly s/he didn’t speak with the alleged harasser or the alleged harasser’s employer.

If the manager and H.R. professional made their comments out of ignorance, that is bad enough. Clearly whatever training Microsoft had provided up to that point would have been seriously lacking. Alternatively, both the manager and the H.R. representative may, in fact, have known better, but for various reasons may not have taken the policies and training seriously. The one marginal redeeming point in this matter is Microsoft’s head of HR’s response, in which she vowed to do better, inviting anyone who has suffered any harassment or discrimination to contact her directly and acknowledging that the burden of addressing sexual harassment does not rest with the women alone.

It stands to reason that Microsoft has policies and training on sexual harassment. I cannot imagine otherwise. Policies and training however, without anything more, are simply not enough. Without follow-up, how would anyone know if employees and managers are adhering to policies and implementing the training they received? In fact, it appears that at least some of the managers and even H.R. representatives were doing neither, or the one example above would have been handled much differently. According to Quartz, the e-mail thread included allegations from “dozens of women.”

While I’ve given the following takeaways on sexual harassment (all harassment really) before, I will say them again here:
 

 
Contents of this post are for educational/informational purposes only, are not legal advice, and do not create an attorney-client relationship. Consult with competent employment counsel in the state(s) in which you employ people with your specific questions.

This article originally appeared here.